Author's Note: Once again I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to review. I am happy to say that this story has received over 10,000 hits and 99 reviews. I also want to thank those of you who have put this on your Favorite or Story Alert list. It's very satisfying to know that so many of you enjoy my work. After this chapter there will only be two more, including an epilogue. I do however have thoughts about two possible sequels, so be sure to let me know what all of you think about that. As for this chapter, I think the chapter title pretty much says it all. Enjoy.
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Along with the sharp horrible pain came a total shock. She was stabbing him! He didn't think he let his instincts take over. Balling his fist he swung with all his strength and was rewarded with a satisfying crunch as his fist connected solidly with her chin. He sent her reeling back and was rewarded with even more pain as the kunai sliced out of him. He yelled out as he leapt back to put some distance between them. His left hand he put over his gaping wound, with his right he reached into his weapons pouch. He pulled out three shuriken and threw them at her. She hit the ground and rolled back up to her feet. She leapt up easily avoiding the shuriken and landing on top of the dome they had been standing behind. Shikamaru landed on a walkway that connected two pyramids. The pain was bad and blood was covering his hand. This was not a good way to start a fight, especially not a fight to the death.
She laughed and pulled out three kunai in each hand. "Is that the best you can do Leaf nin? Can't you even make a fight of it?" She threw all six kunai in a flash aiming to kill and end this.
He ducked down and rolled towards one of the pyramids. "Who are you? You're not Temari." Though it hurt he pulled his left hand away from the wound and began making hand signs.
"You sure about that?" She laughed.
"Yeah." He completed the seals. "Shadow Possession Technique." His shadow raced forward in an effort to capture her.
She saw it and had no trouble leaping away ahead of it. "Too slow!" While in the air she snapped out a couple more kunai. He leapt around the corner of the pyramid temporarily putting it between him and her. "Are you just going to run rabbit?"
He pulled out some gauze from one of the pouches of his vest and very swiftly covered his gash. "That seems like a good idea for right now." He wasn't going to panic. A stomach wound might hurt like hell, but it wasn't immediately fatal. "Why don't you tell me who you are and why you're attacking me?"
She landed about halfway up the opposite side of the pyramid. She began moving for the peak. "Well maybe I really am Temari and we're having a lover's spat."
He finished bandaging his wound. It was a good thing he always carried all of his equipment with him, even on a date. "You are not Temari." He began climbing up the pyramid hoping to surprise his opponent. "She would never stab me. She might beat me to death with her fan, but she wouldn't stab me."
He was only about half way up when she stepped out onto the capstone. She was smiling down at him. "You know what, you're right." The henge dropped with a puff of smoke. "I'm not Temari." In her place was a man in desert camouflage pants and a large tan jacket. He wore the customary turban and his face was covered by a veil except for the eyes. Across his jacket were criss crossed two belts laced with kunai. And on each hip he wore a massive pouch. With no effort he tossed a few more kunai. Shikamaru leapt back off the pyramid and down to the ground.
Perfect, my jutsu works best when I'm above my opponent. He reached a hand into each pouch and pulled out about a dozen terra cotta ceramic tiles. He tossed them into the airand quickly performed the necessary hand signs. "Dancing Tiles Technique." The tiles immediately began spinning and orbiting around him. He reached into the pouches again and tossed out more and more of them until he had close to a hundred of them spinning around him. They were like living things, eager to guard and serve him.
Shikamaru was on the ground, looking up at his opponent about a hundred feet above him. He had a bad feeling about this. "Just who the hell are you?"
He laughed and brought his hands together. "I'm the hawk circling above its prey. Now, run rabbit!!" With the jutsu active he didn't any more words or hand signs. With his will he sent all the tiles soaring down on their prey.
Shikamaru moved as fast as he could but there were just too many of them to dodge. He got his arms up to protect his neck and face. Spinning as fast as they were their edges cut into him like kunai. His arms, legs, and back were all hit and he cried out in pain. Not only did they cut him but they hit like hammers. His leap was knocked off course and he landed about ten feet in front of an obelisk.
This is too damn easy. I cannot wait to tell grandfather how I butchered this stupid Leaf nin. He reached into his pouches and began tossing out tiles again. He watched Shikamaru stumble around to the other side of the obeliskHe laughed, if the poor Leaf nin thought that was going to save him he was in for a surprise. They had barely started fighting and poor little Shikamaru was already bleeding and hurt. He was having fun. He wanted to make the game last just a little longer.
Shikamaru took the gauze out again. None of the cuts were too deep, but he had a lot of them. I am starting to lose a lot of blood. He did what he could as fast as he could. He covered the biggest cuts on his arms and legs. There was a sharp pain in the middle of his back but there was no way for him to reach around to fix it. This was not going well. This was just like his fight with Temari during the Chunin exams. He was up against an opponent with greater raw power who could strike at him from beyond the range of his shadow jutsus. But even though he had lost that match he had found a way to capture her. He had maneuvered her into a vulnerable position where he could reach her. He had to find a way to do the same with this guy or he was going to die here.
"Hey, Leaf nin, how are you feeling?"
"I've been better."
"Listen, I would love to tell you who I am, but I'm afraid that would be against the rules. I've decided to be a good little boy for this mission. But I could tell you why I'm about to kill you. Still want to know?"
"I'm going out on a limb and guessing it has something to do with Temari."
"Good guess."
"I'm also guessing you're one of her many admirers."
"I'm more than an admirer, I happen to be one of her suitors."
"Well that's a lie isn't it Senya, you were one of her suitors right? Didn't she let you know she wanted nothing more to do with you?"
There was a long silence and then a strained laugh. "Very good Shikamaru, how did you know?"
"I didn't, it was an educated guess, but now I know."
"Well since I'm about to kill you I don't suppose it really matters."
Shikamaru finished tying the last of his explosive notes to his kunai. "Say, since I know you'll never get the chance to find out for yourself, would you like to know what it's like to kiss her?"
Senya could feel a white hot anger filling him again. All of a sudden this wasn't fun anymore. And the worst part of it was the bastard had a point. "Sure, tell me."
"She always tasted like fresh cherries and kissing her was like getting to visit heaven." He cast his jutsu.
"Heaven, huh? Well I don't think you'll be getting any more visits there." No, this was no longer fun. "Time for you to die Leaf nin." He watched Shikamaru make a run for it. He sent half of his tiles flying down to rip him apart. Several of the tiles struck and he watched as the bushin disappeared in a puff of smoke.
It was time to move. The moment the bushin was destroyed Shikamaru leapt out from behind the obelisk and tossed all six of the kunai with explosive notes. Senya jumped down the other side of the pyramid as he sent the remaining tiles to intercept the kunai. The knives hit the tiles and they all went off in a massive explosion. Senya avoided the worst of it, but was still thrown down the side of the pyramid hard. He got up quick, there was a taste of blood in his mouth and a couple of ribs hurt, but otherwise he seemed all right. He looked around and was surprised to see Shikamaru standing in the smoke at the top of the pyramid.
"Shadow Possession Technique." He would try to get him while he was disoriented from the blast. His shadow stretched out and towards Senya.
Senya saw the shadow coming for him. Not good! He leapt back. The shadow came on after him. He leapt back again, onto the top of an arch. The shadow continued to move, then slowed, then stopped well short of him. So it can only go about fifty yards. He began tossing out some more tiles, but this time he put some of his chakra into about half a dozen of them. "Good try, you managed to hurt me and you damn near caught me with your shadow."
Shikamaru was huffing with the exertion. His shadow was receding, if he could have moved just a little faster it might have worked. "Yes, almost, but not quite."
"Let me show you how it's done." He sent out the three dozen or so tiles after the Leaf nin." As he'd hoped Shikamaru jumped down the other side of the pyramid, obviously thinking it would shield him. It would, from the ones he had not charged. When they passed the top of the pyramid he detonated the six tiles with near the same force as explosive notes. Again the top of the pyramid disappeared in a huge explosion.
The explosion caught him totally by surprise and he was thrown down the side of the pyramid by the force of it. When he slammed into the ground he felt bones break. He was sure some of his ribs were broken, along with his left shoulder. He could still move his left hand and arm, but it hurt like hell.
Having learned his lesson, Senya ran around the pyramid to an obelisk about a hundred yards from where Shikamaru was now lying crumpled on the ground. No more playing around. He reached into his jacket and took out one of the dozen summoning scrolls he'd brought with him. Activating it he immediately summoned a hundred tiles. "Time to die Leaf nin, have fun roasting in hell." With his will he sent every last tile down towards the boy.
Shikamaru sized up the situation instantly. He was too badly hurt to move very fast and there were too many tiles. But there was one thing to his advantage. Lying where he was he was completely in the pyramid's shadow. He had one chance to escape being hit by those tiles. He put his hands together and ran through fifteen hand signs. "Walk in Shadow Technique."
As he watched Senya saw the Leaf nin cast a jutsu and suddenly lose his form and color. For an instant he seemed to be made of shadows. The tiles struck and passed through him hitting the ground and wall. Then Shikamaru was gone completely.
"Oh hell no!" Senya cried out.
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Temari didn't slow down until she was through the front door. The moment she did she began yelling for Gaara. The surprised servants told her he was in the study. She went into the study without bothering to knock. Gaara looked up at her from his desk. He seemed surprised and just as calm and collected as he usually was.
"You didn't call me on the radio com link did you?"
He looked at her in greater surprise. "No, Temari I did not."
She nodded. "Gaara I think we have a serious problem. Please come with me, we need to check something."
Curious he agreed and the two of them went down the hall to a small room. Opening the door nothing seemed unusual. At least until Temari took a closer look at the frequency setting. "Someone changed the frequency. I received a message that I thought was from you. When I tried to call you back I got dead air." She set the setting back to its correct place.
"Have we had any visitors today?" Gaara asked.
"Only Shikamaru."
"Then presuming he is not to blame, it would seem we have a spy in our midst."
Temari nodded unhappily. "It looks that way. But why would anyone go to this trouble to just send me home? And why would they tell me to leave…" And suddenly she gasped as it became clear. "This isn't about me! They're after Shikamaru!" Without another word she hurried to the door.
"I'll come with you."
"No, find out who did this and squeeze them!" Temari fled out the door. She wasn't in the habit of giving Gaara orders, but this once she did and didn't care. She leapt out the front door running for all she was worth. Praying and promising Kami every possible offering so long as she found him all right.
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He was huffing in and out the air. His hands were shaking and he was hurting bad. He had used up a lot of chakra with that last jutsu and he didn't have much more left. But for the moment at least he was safe. He was lying in the shadow of another pyramid, this one closer to the outer wall. He made a mental note to thank his dad for bugging him into learning some more of the family jutsus. When he got home, troublesome or not, he was finally learning all of them and anything else his dad had to teach him. He also made a mental note to talk to Tsunade about issuing radio communicators to all shinobi teams as standard equipment. They were very expensive, but would be invaluable to teams in the field. For instance, if he were just able to call Ino or Chouji right now that would make a world of difference. For that matter if only there were a phone booth somewhere he could call the hotel or the Sabaku house. As it was he knew help would be coming soon. When Temari figured it out she would get back here as fast as she could. Unfortunately her home was on the other side of Suna. Even moving at top speed over the roof tops it was about ten minutes from here to there. Say it would take about five for her to figure it out and get moving back here. So a grand total of about twenty five minutes then, before Temari showed up here ready to murder Senya. He thought they were halfway through that now. So he had to hold on for, ten, twelve, maybe fifteen more minutes. He put his hands together in an, 'O,' and began to consider his options.
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Senya was on top of the central obelisk looking desperately in all directions. He was starting to panic and was scared as hell. What the hell jutsu was that? Where had he gone to? If somehow he was back in the city the game was over and he was a dead man. From the moment his grandfather had given him this assignment he had only thought of one possible ending to it. Now suddenly he was focused on the other possibility. If Shikamaru got away his life, as he'd known it, was over. No more being a nobleman, no more marrying Celia, no more being a Suna nin, hell, no more Suna. This was a hands mission. If it went bad his grandfather and everyone else would turn their backs on him and pretend he had been acting on his own. He was not deluded enough to believe for a second that his grandfather would try to save him. The first thing that would happen would be that he would be disowned by his clan. Then after that his best hope would be to be immediately executed. A much worse alternative would be to end up handed over to the Leaf nins and their tender mercy. If Shikamaru got away he wasn't going home again. If that happened he was going over the wall and becoming a missing nin. But even that alternative meant his ruin. Even if he got to keep his freedom and his life, he would lose everything else and never be able to return.
Calm the hell down! He took a couple deep breaths. What he'd used was obviously some sort of teleportation jutsu; and those had very limited ranges. There was no chance he could have used it to get into the city. And if he had, well it was game over anyway. He had to assume he was still hiding somewhere in the monument. He's on his last legs, if I find him no more playing around. I'll just kill him and get the hell out of here. He was painfully aware that he did not have an unlimited amount of time. He leapt down from the obelisk and began running about the monument searching for the rabbit.
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Whenever he got into a serious fight it always felt as though he were playing a huge game of shogi; with himself and his opponent as the only pieces on the board. He'd gotten the worst of it so far, but that didn't matter. As he'd told Temari, again and again, it didn't matter how many pieces you lost, only who had the last winning move. He looked westward at the sun. It was very nearly gone now. He had about five minutes of daylight left. For a shadow user this was both the best and worst time to use jutsus. It was the best because the shadows were longer now than at any other time in the day. It was the worst because once the sun was gone the shadows would disappear with the gathering twilight.
He had two courses open to him, both with risks. One he could just hunker down and try to hide until Temari arrived. The problem there was that once the sun went down he lost his shadow jutsus and was a sitting duck if Senya spotted him. Two he could put his plan into action and try and take Senya out himself. The problem with that was it required him to make himself a target in order to move Senya into the necessary position. And if it was option two he had to go right now, he was almost out of time.
"If she saves my life twice I'll never hear the end of it." There, the decision hadn't been that hard. He began making hand signs.
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Senya spotted him making a run for it heading west. He was obviously badly hurt and not moving that fast. He went after him. He had a hundred tiles spinning around him.
"Where do you think you're going rabbit?"
Shikamaru laughed but kept going as fast as he could. "I've worked up an appetite; can you recommend a good restaurant?"
"You don't need any food where you're going." He made sure to keep a safe distance, just in case, and sent a dozen tiles his way. Shikamaru tried to dodge them as best he could but was still hit. He disappeared in a puff of smoke. "Damn it!" He came to a halt and scanned the area around him. Nothing, not a damn thing. Well at least he knew Shikamaru was still here. He needed a better view. He rushed back to the central obelisk and leapt to the very top. He spotted him. He was running in the opposite direction now, straight eastward, and was almost to the edge of the monument. Please Kami let this be the real thing. He sent a dozen tiles racing down. This time when they hit their target it didn't vanish in a puff of smoke. He saw thrilled to hear a cry of pain and see his opponent hit the ground. "Finally!" He spoke with more relief than anything else. He still had eleven summoning scrolls on him. He was going to use every last one of them until Shikamaru was nothing but dog meat. "You're dead."
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His left ankle was definitely broken. He was lying on the stone pavement looking back up. He saw Senya standing on the very top of the obelisk, no doubt getting ready to send down the rest of those damn tiles. He was nearly depleted of chakra and in terrible pain.
He smiled. "Checkmate." He cast the seals. "Shadow Possession Technique."
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He was about to send the rest of the tiles flying when his body froze. He instantly lost his control over the tiles and they fell the long way to earth. Suddenly he bent himself over and put his hands on his knees. His chest was moving as if he were panting for air. It was a mirror of the pose Shikamaru was in.
"You couldn't have gotten me!" He shouted down. "You're hundreds of yards away!"
Shikamaru nodded and so did Senya. "Look at your feet." He shouted back up.
Senya did, he didn't have a choice. He was standing on the eastern corner of the obelisk's point. "So?"
"You're standing in shadow." Senya didn't understand. "You should have studied my abilities. I can use other shadows to extend my range. The moment you stepped foot on the peak you were in reach."
Grandfather was right I should have studied. "So what now?" He called down mockingly. "I mean it's not like you can shadow me to death."
"Actually that's not true; I have an assassination technique called, 'Shadow Neck Bind.' But I'm afraid I don't have the chakra right now."
"You're almost completely out aren't you?" Shikamaru nodded and so did Senya. "You've got enough left to hold me for what? A minute? Two?"
"About that, yes."
"The second you let go I whistle up one of my scrolls and I kill you."
"I know, so I'm afraid I have no choice but to kill you first."
"How are you going to do that?" He shouted scornfully.
"I'm going to make you take one step forward."
"Huh?"
Shikamaru was done with explanations. He took one long step forward. On him it seemed comical. For Senya that step was out into nothing. He plunged face first off the two thousand foot height, he screamed all the way down.
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Shikamaru sat down. He was feeling lightheaded. Blood loss. Reaching into his vest he got out two items. He lit a flare and set it next to him. In the gathering darkness it would help Temari find him. He then took the needle and removed its cap. The morphine shot would help with the pain, and now that the fight was over it wouldn't matter if it slowed down his thinking. As the morphine kicked in he laid out on the stones and looked up into the cloudless sky.